"You come to realize that we are witnessing a battle for the soul of American medicine. Somewhere in the United States at this moment, a patient with chest pain, or a tumor, or a cough is seeing a doctor. And the damning question we have to ask is whether the doctor is set up to meet the needs of the patient, first and foremost, or to maximize revenue."
The Cost Conundrum
What I like about this article is that Dr. Gawande gets at the heart of the problem. We're not going to be able to solve the problem of health care costs by changing who pays for what. What we need is to revitalize the profession of medicine, bring the honorable reputation back to physicians and make sure that doctors are trained and inculcated with a culture of asking the question "what is the best we can do for this patient" and put all other questions or incentives aside. This is what a profession is about, and why doctors have such high respect. It's NOT easy to make this the main objective of your daily life. But it a worthy goal that comes with responsibility, tough decisions, and respect. We have to get back to the healing, caretaking aspects of medicine, the aspects that everyone, patients and doctors can unite behind.
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